R&R Lacquers Shiso and Forget Me Not

R&R Lacquers Shiso

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

Here are a couple of lovely summery shades from R&R Lacquers 'Primavera' collection. First, this pretty aqua with white pink and gold glitter is 'Shiso'. 

I used two coats of Shiso with Seche Vite to smooth the glitter out.

R&R Lacquers Shiso

R&R Lacquers Shiso

The other shade is 'Forget Me Not', a delicate light cornflower blue with pink and white glitter.

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not is quite sheer, so I layered it over Model's Own Cornflower Gleam... which is a lovely shade of light cornflower blue from their Hypergel collection. Here are is Cornflower Gleam on its own..

All these products were provided for review. You can buy R&R Lacquers polishes from their Etsy shop and Models Own are readily available in Boots, Superdrug or from Models Own website.

Models Own Speckled Eggs - MAGPIE

Models Own Speckled Eggs - Magpie 

Models Own Speckled Eggs are a set of pretty pastel cremes packed with black glitter in various sizes. Yes, they are very like the Illamasqua I'mPerfection speckled polishes which were a limited edition released at the beginning of last year - some of the colours are similar, some are different.... the biggest difference is the price! I only bought one of the Illa speckles but I will get around to doing a comparison sometime. For now though, here is what I think is probably my favourite Models Own Speckled Egg - Magpie. That might change as I try others, but for the moment I'm very taken by this shade. It's a gorgeous turquoise shade.

Models Own Speckled Eggs - Magpie 

Application needs a bit of care, the formula is a bit thick and gloppy; I used three thin coats for this mani, with a layer of Seche Vite between the second and third coats and then another coat of SV at the end. The polish also seemed to be a bit on the slow side to dry, although to me this is pretty much irrelevant as I always use Seche Vite. I like the effect enough to completely  forgive the slightly tricky formula.

Models Own Speckled Eggs - Magpie 

I purchased Models Own Magpie from my local Superdrug. Models Own polishes are £5, currently 3 for 2 - so working out at £3.33 these are a bargain compared to the £14.50 Illamasqua speckles (although most of the Illa ones are gone now anyway).

Models Own Speckled Eggs - Magpie 

Finally, I added a matte topcoat for the last day I wore this mani - when matte this really does look like a birds egg!

Models Own Speckled Eggs - Magpie (with matte topcoat)

R&R Lacquers RESPLENDENT

R&R Lacquers Resplendent

This is the second of the R&R Lacquers glitter toppers from their 'New Black' Collection I was sent to try. Resplendent is a mix of large teal and smaller silver holo circle glitters with a background sparkle of holo teal microglitter. I reviewed R&R Lacquers Elegant in this post last week.

I layered Resplendent over this matte monochrome gradient done with Barry M Silk Nail Paints in Pearl and Manglaze Santorum and Matte is Murder. There are more pictures of this gradient in yesterday's post here:

I think the glitter shades in Resplendent look equally good over the light and dark parts of my nails! I used one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food to smooth the glitter (and the matte of the gradient) then a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to dry the mani and give it a high gloss finish.

These two macros are both the same nail - but at a slightly different angle - see how the colours in the holo glitter circles change!

Then, since the base started out matte, I thought I'd try a matte topcoat over the finished mani. I used Mavala Color-Matt - I love the way this turned out!

R&R Lacquers Resplendent

I was sent R&R Lacquers Resplendent for review; the polish is available from R&R Lacquers Etsy Shop.

Ethnic print stamping with MoYou Explorer plate 5 and Barry M Lychee

Nail stamping with Barry M Lychee MoYou Explorer plate no 5 

I love ethnic prints so I was really excited to get MoYou Explorer collection plate number 5. This is an allover pattern plate, which are just brilliant for longer nails. I'd been thinking about trying Barry M's Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee for stamping for a while, and this was a perfect test for it! Lychee stamped wonderfully over this teal base - it's already a firm favourite nail art polish of mine; I've used it as a base, for dots, freehand nail art, watermarbling and tape!

Nail stamping with Barry M Lychee MoYou Explorer plate no 5 

I used the geometric section of the plate in the bottom right corner and stamped at different angles on each nail to get this variety of patterning. The last couple of pictures are with a matte topcoat that has worn a bit 'satiny' after a day or so.......... but I like the effect this gives the stamping!

Nail stamping with Barry M Lychee MoYou Explorer plate no 5 

The base for this mani is Binky London Parsons Green and Paris Pearl, which I reviewed here (that post includes some stamping with other polishes from this same plate too). I purchased my Barry M Lychee from my local Boots and the MoYou plate direct from MoYou.

Binky London Swatch and Review - part 3

Binky London Grosvenor Gold and Pimlico Purple

These are the last four of the new Binky London range I've been trying out. Firstly, let's look at the two metallic colours, Pimlico Purple and Grosvenor Gold. I wanted to put these through their paces with stamping, since the silver metallic I reviewed earlier, Sloane Square Silver, stamped so magnificently. Here's the full mani I stamped, using a new plate from MoYou London, Explorer Collection #5. I love this stamping plate - I'm not going to turn this post into a review of the stamping plate but I will say that these overall-design stamping plates are fantastic for longer nails!

Binky London Grosvenor Gold and Pimlico Purple

To start, I painted my ring finger with Pimlico Purple and the rest with Grosvenor Gold. On their own, both of these are pretty shades; I think I'd describe Grosvenor Gold as more of a champagne colour than a full on gold. The fomula is good - very dense so it covers quickly and its easy to handle.

This is two coats (both colours). Metallic shades like these always tend to show brush strokes, so this  doesn't concern me in the least with this product - if I was going to wear a shade like this on it's own than I apply the second coat with a fine, slightly dampened makeup sponge (see my application of Sloane Square Silver for how this looks) to avoid this. As I was going to be adding nail art over this base, I didn't bother with this here.

The polishes stamp superbly - look at the small open circles on my index finger! This is Pimlico Purple stamping over Grosvenor Gold. My little finger is also stamped with Pimlico Purple; the wide band with tiny slits in has printed perfectly onto my nail! On my ring finger the colours are reversed, Grosvenor Gold is stamped onto the base of Pimlico Purple but that worked really well too.

Perfect polishes for stamping! I can see these three getting a lot of use from me in nail art in the future :)

And lastly, ...well, I like to save the best until last! My favourite colour in the whole collection has to be Parsons Green. I love teal nail polish, and this is a superb example. The colour is rich and deep, and the application is perfect. This mani is two coats, with Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to seal and shine. The first two pictures are in my diffuser, the last one in direct light from the window. What a perfect colour!

OK, that's not quite everything............. as Binky London also released a colour shifting topcoat, Paris Pearl. Paris Pearl looks like a white polish in the bottle but its actually a clear topper with a strong pink shimmer. I added one coat of Paris Pearl to Parsons Green and look what happens............

Binky London Parsons Green with Paris Pearl Topcoat

The magenta flash looks wonderful against the dark teal base, but I bet this would look fantastic over black or a near-black shade too! Awesomesauce!

My earlier reviews of the other polishes in the Binky London range are here and here. Overall I'm really impressed with the brand, the formula and brush are great. My favourite shades in the range are Parsons Green and Raffles Red, and I think the metallic shades (Sloane Square Silver, Grosvenor Gold and Pimlico Purple) are amazing polishes for stamping. I'm looking forward to seeing what the brand come up with next - I'm hoping there are some more adventurous shades in the next collection.

My bottles are press samples sent for review, but they are available to purchase from Escentual.